Teachers’ unions have raised concern over a lack of understanding of the proposed draft Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) bill.
Teachers’ unions have raised concern over a lack of understanding of the proposed draft Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) bill.
This, amid growing debate among parents and other stakeholders, who have publicly expressed dismay over clause 41, which reads “Clause 41 seeks to amend section 61 of the SASA to extend the powers of the minister to make regulations on the management of learner pregnancy”.
The parents and stakeholders have expressed that the clause seeks to promote comprehensive sexual education to young children, which they found to be inappropriate.
National Professional Teachers' Organisation of SA (Naptosa) executive director, Basil Manuel, said among the complaints related to “half truths peddled by misinterpretation and misunderstanding"
“We are part of the due consultations. The Bela bill doesn’t speak about sexual education as an individual entity. The said clause does not speak about sexual education at all but seems that everything is just being lost in translation.
“The bill has some things that are unnecessarily blown out of proportion by those with their own agendas.
“It’s some deliberate intent to cause panic, some clauses are being lost in translation.
“There is a lot of misunderstanding, conjecture and speculation,” he said.
The South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) echoed these views.
Sadtu national spokesperson, Nomusa Cembi, said the clause was “too broad” and it did not specifically talk about sexual education.
“There is an agenda to misinform using the bill to put forward their agendas.
“The Bela bill does not talk about sexuality education.
“We see the bill as an administrative bill that speaks to matters of administrations,” she said.
Parents for Equal Education SA founder, Vanessa le Roux, said a lack of clarity on Clause 41 was causing panic among parents.
“We are living in a very diverse country and teaching children of colour about sex at such a young age, it becomes problematic.
“The bill is freaking me out. This promotes a comprehensive sexuality education, which is graphic and teaches children about things that they might even be too young to understand,” she said.
Candidate attorney at public interest law centre, Section27, Motheo Brodie said the bill aimed to bring basic education legislation in line with progressive legal developments on the right to basic education from the courts.
“We are in strong support of the bill, but we have raised our concerns on the bill in regard to specific issues.
“We are aware that comprehensive sexual education has been made a controversial issue, and we have seen misinformed opinions from some who believe that the bill promotes ‘sex education’.
“These concerns seem to be misdirected as the Bela does not deal with that at all.
“However, we are supportive of the comprehensive sexual education in the school curriculum for a few reasons, including the prevalence of HIV and GBV in our society.”
Basic Education spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said the bill was a parliamentary process that was being handled by the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education.
Cape Times